Regular Monday night class at our new location and we’re getting
comfortable here. I wanted to go over a Chan poem from Master Han Shan called Contemplating Mind. Han Shan lived from 1546 to 1623. He is
one of the great Chan Masters. In this poem, he is asking us to contemplate mind.
This is very important for two reasons: one, he's not saying to think about
mind or cogitate (this simply kind of chomping into consciousness that we do
sometimes), he's talking about contemplating.

Contemplation is very important because it's different than thinking. So
if we were to contemplate this moment, it’s different than thinking about it. If
we start thinking about this moment, we’re going “Okay, that car right there,
something else is going to happen; not quite sure what it is but this moment
right now…” But when you contemplate this moment, rather than think about it,
it is this… and this… and this moment. When you contemplate this moment, you
contemplate mind. And when you contemplate mind, mind is not too far from
enlightenment for that moment.

The only problem is you can't sustain it and if you could, then you
would see this shoreline from the other shoreline. I hesitate to use those
kinds of analogy. They sound so nice and romantic but they can confuse people
into thinking that this moment is not the mind; this moment is not the Buddha moment.
Shifu used to say “the Buddha is in the present moment.” When we talk about the
Buddha, being this enlightened one, you're talking about the very essence of mind
– the very essence of what you use to contemplate. You’re not separate from it and
it brings about some interesting ways of looking at things. Han Shan was
careful in how he used these words in this particular poem but the idea here is
for you not to make a mistake.

Recently I was exchanging e-mails with a very wonderful practitioner from
Toronto. She had a great opportunity to speak with many different Masters
including some in China when she went and was living there for a while. She had
said something in one of her e-mails that it would be reflecting in consciousness
(or some words to that effect).

I e-mailed her back indicating that “nothing reflects in consciousness;
consciousness reflects in mind.” After a couple of days, she e-mailed me to say
“Thank you for that turning phrase.” So she understood what that meant. The idea
of a turning phrase is for one to approach it from the right view. Here is a very,
very good practitioner; very sincere but she is off by just a little bit. There's
another Chan poem that says that if you miss it by an inch, you’ve missed it by
a thousand miles. That is what we need to work on today, this turning of the
mind’s eye inward so that we are correct in what is happening. We are not
confused that we’re practicing in consciousness.

Because of her practice, she was able to really pick up the deep essence
of what was said. It's a funny thing; it was a very brief e-mail but it need
not be any more. Had she expounded on it, then it would've began to smell. As
it was, it was very fresh. It is like what one master said that “you have to
endure, you have to eat bitter, you have to endure the cold of winter before
you can smell the fragrance of the plum blossom coming through the window.” Beautiful
sayings, very romantic but you have to make it your own. In that moment, she
made it her own.

I was very happy that I was able to just do a little fine-tuning just a
little bit, but it makes all the difference. Because once you start looking
that way, when you start looking at it saying, “ Ah! Consciousness… let me be aware.
Consciousness… let me be aware; it’s arising!” and understanding that it reflects
in mind. All of that happens in the present moment.

Let's go into the poem:

Look upon the
body as unreal,

an image in the mirror,
the reflection of the moon in the

water.

This particular phrase is kind of interesting because the very first
part of it comes from the Hindu teachings and actually there was a very similar
language to that from a great Hindu master of looking at the body as unreal and
this idea of trying not to claim this corporals flesh as being “you,” as
defining you. We generally know where people have been and what they've done by
the way they look. There was someone (I forgot the name) who said, “We all have
our faces that we deserve at the age of 50.” (laughs…) It's an interesting
thing that I've been telling people to “look at your face!” It’s kind of a weird thing because people go
“Oh my God, I have to look at my face? What does that mean?” You’re looking at
your face to see if you were grumpy, or happy or whatever. You’ll be silly but
you look at your face and you’re aware; that is the present moment. You’re being
in the present moment. If you're able to look at your face or look at your body,
look at your mannerism, your voice. It’s very important.

Today a person came in to my office. She was wondering if I was the same
person that was in the website on Chan meditation. I said, “That's possible!”
(laughs…) As we talked and talked for while in the lobby, she had been giving
my secretary a hard time because she was like so panicky about something. So I
explained to her that she must be careful what she reflects out on what she
does because it has an impact on people; that one would the rather be a person
that brings harmony to the environment than not be that way.

So she kind of understood that. I wouldn’t say to her right now to look
upon her body as unreal, but I'd say that she's on her way. It's funny because
she is actually a seeker as well, started looking into Chi gong and stuff and watching
DVDs to look at it. It reminds me of Mr. Miyagi, “You learn Chi gong from a
DVD?” But it's a start and the heart is there.

So we look upon this body as unreal and it’s very interesting because in
our practice, actually some part from the Abhidharma or the Theravada practice,
where they actually have you look at your body as it’s a case. You envision
your body passing away and shriveling up and bloating up and blowing up and all
sorts of different things going in and out until you’re finally picked clean. It's
a good way to disassociate the idea of mind from the body.

And here it says an image in a mirror, the reflection of the moon in the
water. Moon in the Chinese culture of Chan represented enlightenment or the
essence of mind. When they talk about this moon in the water, it's a reflection.
It's a reflection of our preconceived notion of what we think is enlightenment
- this light, lighted moon or our preconceived notion of what mind is, but it’s
simply a reflection and it's not real.

There also was a very famous story of this one nun where she had been
carrying water from the well and it was on a moonlit night. And all of a sudden,
she looked down and the bottom of the bucket fell out - “Swoosh!” There went the
water; there went the reflection of the moon. There was other stories where
somebody is drinking water from a stream and saw their reflection and became
enlightened. It wasn't because they were that good looking or bad looking, it
was that something clicked. Because they put in the time to practice, it hit in
that moment and when that happened, they saw things as reflections. They saw
the world as a reflection upon mind and from this type of reflection, they were
able to allow themselves to drop into mind.

It's kind of a weird thing - “How can you drop into mind? Are you going
to be sitting and meditating trying to drop yourself in?” Sometimes they talk
about it to fall into the void or into the abyss. That sounds so sci-fi or
fatalistic but it is dropping into the emptiness of what the mind is and
allowing the mind to simply reflect that pure wisdom. When there's this pure
wisdom, there isn’t even any wisdom anymore. It’s just a direct knowing of mind,
of what is occurring.

This is important not for the words that I say but for you to be
inspired to look into it, to look into what this means, to look into what it
means about the reflection of the moon on the water – “What does that mean? There
must be something; it sounds cool.” Chan Masters always sound cool but that
doesn't help you. You have to find out why it's cool and why it works. You have
to find that out for yourself.

The third line that comes up:

Contemplate mind
as formless,

yet bright and
pure.

Contemplate mind, bright and formless. This mind has no form. It's what
enables it to be bright and pure; it illuminates everything that arises within
it. All of the thinking, all the images, all of the sights, sound, smell, taste,
touch, thought, all those things arise from mind. That’s the illumination of
mind. To know thoughts as they arise is the illumination of mind. To engage in
a harmony with those images is the illumination of mind - naturally following
function.

The idea of this “bright and pure” is what messes people up because
everybody's hoping for that big illumination, that shaft of light that comes
down from the heavens. And they go to the master and the master confirms the
enlightening experience. If you go to some places, it will be your pocketbook that
will be enlightened rather than from a true master that’s going to confirm your
enlightenment. It's not that way but it’s actually a little bit of that, but
it’s not that way. It’s very mundane and ordinary as one kind of reboots your
computer and all of a sudden, that which we call self is recognized as the
viral program and is no longer there. The computer works fast and smooth
without it.

Not a single thought arising,

empty, yet perceptive; still, yet illuminating;

Illuminating, there’s that word again. What does that mean? And this idea
of not a single thought arises. It is not that one does not have thought, it is
that one does not cling to the thought that arises in the mind. As one does not
cling to thought moment to moment to moment, they’re easily flowing with
everything. They’re at one with it. I hesitate to say this in some way because
then, people confuse unified mind with that statement that they’re one, but “at
one” here does not indicate one like the number one. It’s more like a zero.

One person talked about emptiness, I read it was infinity+1+0 and then horizontal
line divided by two. The idea is just don’t even go there in terms of trying to
grasp what it means. It simply is this way. This illumination is just really
this natural wisdom that’s there that we have chosen not to pay attention to. So
when you're driving down the road and you're going 85 miles an hour, you have a
really great chance of getting a ticket. And if you are drinking at the time,
you really have a good chance of going to jail. And if you're over drinking,
you have a great chance of crashing. If you crash, you have a great chance of
harming somebody, ergo; you lose your car, your license and your freedom. All
of this is wisdom.

Where do you stop and wisdom begins? It is when you're standing in front
of the judge and going, “I really messed up.”

“But this is the third time!”

“Well, I’ll do better next time.”

Or is it someone further in control saying, “I don't really need to
drink.” And you go, “Oh no, he’s telling
me not to drink.” And you don’t need to smoke either. There’s all sorts of
things but it just depends on where you want to stop.

It’s very funny there's a very good Hsuan Hua Master who passed away
already but he’s a very wise master. He was talking to a group and he said, “I'm
going to tell you the secret of how to get enlightened. I’m going to tell you
but you're not going do it.”

The people went, “Tell us, tell us, tell us!”

He says, “Okay, give up sex! There I said it!”

Can you do it? No! His idea was where do you stop? I’m not saying giving
up sex is wisdom, especially if you’re married. You know, that would be an instant
divorce in some cases unless both people are on the same page. But the idea is,
where do we begin our practice? Where do we begin to purify our practice to
make our practice better, to really make a sincere effort in the practice so
that we really are not just skating along, and call yourself a Buddhist and
think it's a noun instead of a verb? Here we look and we begin to check wisdom
in our lives a little earlier and before.

There's a famous quote by Mark Twain that “life would be easier if we start
at eighty and work our way backwards.” Or “sometime in my life I wish I could
do that.” You've got to really use your wisdom every day, your ordinary mundane
wisdom. You use it to practice, sooner or later, that wisdom will be
transcended. That wisdom will be “ah, I see how this goes…” It's like you
sitting there with one of those little wire puzzles. Ever see one of those,
they’re made out of wire and you have to twist them around and try to get them
out? And then after about two minutes, you put it down. You pick it up again,
“no” and you put it down. Then you say “it's not possible to solve this” and
you give up.

And that’s the way we are but if
we really exert effort into the practice, utilize this wisdom, calm ourselves down,
there may come your ability to see the solution to the puzzle. But if not, at
least all you’re doing is you’re practicing working the puzzle. The ironic
thing about it is not when the two pieces come apart. It’s quite the opposite;
it is when all the pieces come together. That only comes from working the
puzzle. There isn't a solution to the puzzle, but you have to work the puzzle.
So he said not a single thought arising.

Speaking of the MasterHsuan
Hua, this was from the book of the Ten Dharma Realm
Not Beyond a Single Thought, all these different Dharma realm which
includes all the samsaric realms. It then splits heaven up into a category of
five heavens to get to the ten realms rather than the six realms. The final
verse of this particular Sutra reads this way. The Sutra reads about all the
different realms, hungry ghosts, and animal realm and all sorts of things. It
could be quite depressing if you’re not ready for them. But on the other hand,
it can be quite enlightening if you are.

This final verse was:

All
of these ten realms—a single thought—

Are not apart from your present
thought.

If you can awaken to that thought,

You'll arrive immediately at the other
shore.

There’s your puzzle; sounds good but what does it mean? All these
samsaric realms – a single thought - are not apart from your present thought.If you can awaken to that, it’s not
apart from this thought. When one has this thought, this thought, and this
thought, but one is not linking them together like some form of track
but just allowing them to flow naturally, the mind is at ease knowing that they’re
flowing naturally. One does not cling to them. We just simply use the thoughts
for the benefit of whatever we're doing at that moment. When we work in this
way, it's a single thought - it is no thought. But every thought is the thought,
but without holding on to it, is purified. It just simply is happening and
gone, happening and gone, happening and gone. You bring the mind to this pin-point
of clarity.

But what happens is as we begin to think about it? We go, “Gilbert says,
we’re getting so close, I remember that now, where is he at now? Oh.” That’s
what we do, but most of the time it has nothing do with what I'm saying. It has
something to do with what other people are saying or whatever happened or if
somebody had given you something very tasty to eat. And even after it was
finished, you’re still licking your fingers and wondering when you’re going to get
another one. So there’s no present thought there. The present thought would be “There
arise greed, greed arising in my mind” or craving is arising. Then you now have
the single thought.

Back to Master Han Shan:

Complete like
the Great Emptiness,

containing all
that is wonderful.

The great emptiness here could be equated to the Dharmakaya.
The Dharmakaya is the essence of the mind
and sometimes they say Buddha-nature. But Buddha-nature sometimes means more like
personality. I really don't want to use that word as much as you can use this essence
of mind or using the term before, the Tathagatagarbha being the Buddha womb –
the thus-come-one womb, but not like the womb like one is going to give birth
to something but the womb that holds the essence of the being within it, without
any borders to it – the being of mind held there. It’s where it is. You cannot
give it a location, a space, a time. It is... That's why it is the Tathagata -
the thus-come-one. But the one again is not the one as the numerical one. The
same thing as it’s not a womb where one comes from. It’s a womb of
understanding, of wisdom that everything is connected by mind. Not by consciousness
but by mind. When we realize that, it changes the whole game because all along,
we’re trying to work in consciousness to get further in the practice but it
can't get us there. We've got to drop off. Any questions so far?

Neither coming
out nor coming in,

without
appearance or characteristics,

countless
skillful means

arise out of one
mind.

Here the first part is talking about no inflows no outflows. There's
nothing that's looking out, there is nothing that’s looking in. Even though we
say turn the mind's eye inward, it doesn't mean that we get a flashlight and
start looking inside of our cranium. It is not in this way. Turning the mind's
eye inward is to return it to mind. As we return it to mind, one has a direct
knowledge again of this Buddha-womb. In this way, there is no inflow or
outflow; where is it going to go? Just like I mentioned the story many times before
of Paichang’s
ducks where Ma-tsu mentioned to Paichang, “Where did the ducks go?” Indeed,
where could they go? It's all mind.

And he says countless skillful means arise out of one mind. So in every
moment, we are practicing and we use every single moment to do it. The
different skillful means is we follow the Buddhas in study, we follow the practice,
we rejoice in the merits of others. We do all sorts of different things which
enable us to you skillful means to practice. We can do recitation. We do
recitation in the right way, with the right heart.

I was listening to one of my friends that there was actually a monk that
came to Michigan to teach and he was a Pure Land practitioner but he taught Right
View. He said, “Pure Land by just simply reciting without developing Right View
is not useful.” You have to know what you’re doing. You have to open the heart
and develop Bodhichitta as well as wisdom and compassion. It was very good
to hear that from a Pure Land practitioner.

Actually, when Valerie first came here and she comes from the Pure Land
School, I was telling her, “I recite; I recite as well. This is how you recite.
This is how you enter.” She picked that up and ran with it and she’s still
here. The idea of linking all of this together is very very incredible because
then one begins to make it their own. And that's what you’ve done. You’ve made
it your own. There are a lot of you that have done that. You’ve taken the
Bodhisattva Precepts; you worked and you worked it and you made it your own. And
how does it manifest? In the wonderful e-mails and actions that people do that
are selfless actions. It’s very important for that to happen.

Independent of
material existence,

which is ever an
obstruction,

do not cling to
deluded thoughts.

These give birth
to illusion.

So the idea of material existence means what they call in Sanskrit as Rupa where you think everything here is
part of your realm. And it is if you’re human but humans don't understand that’s
all part of mind. But when you’re independent of it, they can come and go. They
can make the connection with people; they don't have to have the self there. If
the self is there and Gilbert gets up here to talk to you, then he’ll tell you
jokes; he’ll do a lot of things but it’s not going to get to the essence of
what the teaching is for that day.

So one functions independent of the material existence, but we function
within it, and we don't cling to deluded thoughts. We don't cling to “I’m doing
very good today, I’m doing very bad today, I’m hungry, I'm this or that.” Whatever
it is, one does follow function. When we follow the function, wisdom is
manifesting there. If we don't do that, what it does as Han Shan says is it
gives birth to delusion – the illusion that these things are real, and we begin
to crave for them. We want that, we need this or another this or another that
or whatever it is. It could be anywhere from a hug, to a cigarette, a diet coke,
a piece of pie, new shoes, new bag. Am I getting into any of you yet? (laughs…)
A hot dog, no hot dog? Okay. Continuing:

Attentively
contemplate this mind,

Again he started remember by saying contemplate mind as formless? He’s
saying this is the mind you contemplate, not the one that arises which is
consciousness which is impermanent - constantly coming in and going out, coming in and going out. What we want to do
is connect with that from which all of these things are produced from. Contemplate
this mind.

empty, devoid of
all objects.

If emotions
should suddenly arise,

you will fall
into confusion.

If all of a sudden you get too happy about things or you get angry, you
fall into confusion. Ever see someone who is so angry, you try to calm him down
and you can’t calm him down? It’s not a pretty sight. They’re confused. It is
difficult to calm them down; they might even hit you! But this is just the way
it is. When we understand that, we know how to react to people.

In a critical
moment bring back the light,

Powerful,
illuminating.

The light is the illumination of the mind. We think that we can see our
thoughts but we don't. Most of the time we kind of hear our thoughts but we
don't really see our thoughts. Generally if we see our thought, it’s after we
thought them – “That was not a nice thought! Where did that come from?” But if
we can see the thoughts as they’re arising, we can cut them off. We cut them
off by giving them no further energy, “Sorry, you’re cut off!” Not that we cut
them off and push them out and give them the bum's brush. We just see them for
what they are. When we see them for what they are, it’s natural. Because when
we see a thought arising in the mind, maybe a craving or a desire, as it comes
up, we don’t have to put up a sign on it.

In the beginning you might say “desire” and recognize it. Later on, you
don't have to say anything. The mind recognizes that that thought came up and
it's really just an echo of what was there from before that you put in there,
and is popping up again. You just let it go. Don't attach to it.

Clouds disperse,
the sky is clear,

the sun shines
brilliantly.

Here he's talking about the clouds in a way in which they are
obstructing the mind. The obstruction there is the ignorance. You have to be
careful with a phrase such as this one because it can be misinterpreted. So to
my friend when she said she understood the “turning phrase,” I said something
along the lines of what a great day, the mind's eye turned inward. Clouds and
sky are mind.

In this way, we recognize that we do not have to get rid of the thoughts.
We just have to realize mind. Once we realize mind, those thoughts have no place
to go. They're perfectly within mind. As they arise, we give them their fair
due. If we’re at work, we stay at work and we do our work. If we are thinking
about a personal problem at work, we set it aside while we do our work. If I
need to teach a class, I show up here. When I’m finished and I need to go back,
I go back or I go home to take a rest. Whatever it is, we’re clear about it. All
of those things are constantly testifying to the mind and in permanence and the
clarity of it.

If nothing arises
within mind,

nothing will
manifest without.

That which has
characteristics

is not original
reality.

Here when he says nothing arises, we have to be careful. Nothing arising
is not that the thought does not arise in the mind, but that if it's a functional
thought, it is used and dropped. The “nothing arises in mind” is referring here
to the fundamental emptiness of all things, paticcasamuppada - causes and conditions never fail. This is
the transcendent wisdom – how things work.

So when it says nothing arises in the mind, it could also say if
emptiness arises in within mind, then emptiness will manifest so wherever one
sees, one sees emptiness. It is not like empty or nothing like an empty glass.
It’s seeing the glass as it is. It’s full or empty but just seeing it very
careful, seeing it clearly.

I once had a Chi gong Master. I was with him and one day he came in and asked
me to sit down at a table with him then he covered his cup. He said, “What's in
the cup?” My first thought was nothing, empty. Then my cogitation came in. I
started thinking - “If it's a teacup, it's got to have tea in it.” So I said,
“Tea.” Wrong, it’s empty. My initial reaction to it was empty. My other
reaction was not the right answer. We open ourselves by this emptiness to be
able to see things clearly, even when a hand is covering the cup. One can still
see clearly.

If you can see a
thought as it arises,

this awareness
will at once destroy it.

Whatever state
of mind should come,

sweep it away,
put it down.

He's talking about if you can see
a thought as it arises, the awareness will destroy it. You don’t have to push
it out of mind. Just simply the awareness, the illumination of the mind will
see it and give it no further energy. The next part is, again one has to look
at it very carefully. One Chan Master said that the purpose of Chan is to have
the mind accord with whatever state of mind it encounters so that we can
realize our true nature. (It was a rough quote but close enough)

Essentially what he’s saying here is that we come into harmony with
whatever state of mind we encounter, but we recognize that this is a state of mind
that is there, that this is something that was not there and now it is coming
up. What is the state of the mind? “I’m angry, I’m hungry, I'm impatient, I'm
happy, I’m sad.” Whatever it is, we recognize that but not only recognize it in
what appears to be our self, but in others as well. So the state of mind that
you have is the state of mind that I have. I come in accord with it so that we
don't make it worse. So if you’re angry, I should not let you make me angry.

The idea of sweeping away and putting down is not really that we sweep
the thoughts out. A lot of people when they meditate make that kind of a mistake.
The way we sweep it out and put it down is by the illumination of the mind. The
more we try to make the mind calm by muscling it by effort or mental muscle, we
keep planting more and more seeds - my mind is not calm. Better to say, “Mind
calm, relax.” Not a bad place to start, right? It’s better than “Why can’t I
stop thinking??? Why can’t I stop thinking???” And you start thinking about all
your problems and after while, you don't even like yourself. You get tired and
bored of your own self.

Both good and
evil states

can be transformed
by mind.

Sacred and
profane appear

in accordance
with thoughts.

So if one picks and chooses, then things can be sacred or profane; it is
the same thing with good and evil thoughts. If one looks at things and sees “is
this person really a bad person?” “Well, they sold all of these drugs to this
person. So apparently, they're a bad person.” But one looks at it, we see the
causes of all those things so that we’re better able to deal with it. Do they
need to go to jail? Perhaps, to keep them away from other people and to maybe learn
their lessons there. It is not like “Oh I understand what happened to you when
you were a child. You were selling marijuana in the street. Now you’re up to
being the drug lord. You're forgiven.”

It's not that way. Causes and conditions are such that one looks at
things in the right way. We see things as clearly what is arising and that
whatever we do, we have to pay for it. It doesn’t mean that we abandon that
person but we see it clearly and we put in there what might be of assistance to
make that person a better person.

I once have person that came to me and said, “You know, nobody likes me.
Every time I talk to people, I get the feeling they don’t like me.”

I said, “Do you want me to tell you the truth?”

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “Because you’re a taker; you take everything from everybody. When
you do that, people don’t like you because they realize you're only trying to
get close to them because you want something from them. But when they need
something, you have to go here, you have to go there. You don't help them out.”
It was a shock. And that person changed; really, really changed because they
illuminated the mind to see that face there. They saw the cause and conditions.
They use wisdom to analyze the situation. Not bad…

Reciting mantras
and contemplating mind

are merely herbs
for polishing the mirror.

When the dust is
removed,

they are also
wiped away.

Here this is from Hsen Shu’s School that we’re using our practice of contemplating
mind as herbs to polish this mirror. Essentially all the things that we use to
bring about our realization that we understand, there is actually nothing to
teach. Why is there nothing to teach? I say that many, many times, because it's
all there already. But we nevertheless practice and study until we can come to
that point. When we come to that point, we study even harder because we know,
we’re not quite finished yet. We have to keep going with it.

It’s like somebody who's in the martial arts and gets a black belt. That’s
when they really begin to learn. That’s the point where you start. So having a
little realization is just getting the black belt. You start your work there
until the black belt, after you wash it so many times, it turns white.

Great extensive
spiritual powers

are all complete
within the mind.

The Pure Land or
the Heavens

can be traveled
at will.

I’m not going to talk too much about these great spiritual powers lest
you be starting to look for them. But the idea, I think to me it is important,
I always said a lot of Pure Land practitioners want to go to Pure Land because
it is kind of like an easy place to practice. To me, I just want to keep converting
this to the Pure Land. It doesn't matter that there is a Pure Land or not a
Pure Land. What matters to me is extending harmony around myself. Every once in
a while, I can be a “Pepe on the pew” and stink up the place but I try not to.
I really try not to. I try to create a Pure Land and it’s not very easy to do that
but it is the nature of our practice.

You need not
seek the real,

mind originally
is Buddha.

The familiar
becomes remote,

the strange
becomes familiar.

This is a person where when you turned the mind's eye inward and all of
a sudden, you go “Why did I think that? When did I think I needed to have a
drink? Why did I think I needed to have this affair or to eat that extra donut
or whatever?” And all of a sudden that familiar is being seen as strange to
you. It doesn't make sense to you anymore. That’s what he’s saying - this is a
stage of realization.

Day and night,

everything is
wonderful.

Nothing you
encounter confuses you.

These are the
essentials of mind.

Is everything wonderful? Not really. If Han Shan was here and you asked
him “How do you feel?” He’d say, “How do you think I feel like, I'm 500 years
old. My body hurts, you know.” But nevertheless, it doesn't interfere with mind;
it's understood. And he would not be here because being 500 years old would be
an abomination.

So everything has to follow its natural course. When you understand that
and you use it in this way all the time, you just look at everything that you
see as natural. It’s natural for Wendy to bring another person here. That's the
way it is. It’s natural for people to show up, all sorts of different things
that happen. This is the way it is and when we see things in this way, it helps
us to understand what's going on around us. Any question?

Again this is from Han Shan, Contemplating Mind. It's not an in depth type
of way. I’m merely using it today as a primer for the practice on how to practice
Chan sitting and in your daily life.